King Crimson
Discipline

THE REVIEW

A few days ago, I read a review about Discipline, and I noticed its many negative criticisms (which I partly agree with). So I decided to make my own. Sorry, but first I need to explain the situation of King Crimson at that time: about 7 years (starting from 1981), the King made his masterpiece "Red", and then disbanded. At that moment, progressive rock had lost its creator, its best interpreter. But in 1981, there they were again, with a new lineup and approach to prog. The lineup was as follows: from the previous one remained (obviously) Robert Fripp, guitar, and the octopus Bill Bruford, drums. And here come the new members, both Americans: Robert Steven Belew, alias Adrian Belew, guitarist, singer, and lyricist, who played with the Talking Heads and also with Frank Zappa; and finally Tony Levin, stick bass and backing vocals, namely Peter Gabriel's favorite bassist. The approach has totally changed: in fact, it is based on the two guitarists, who have different qualities: technical and virtuosic (Fripp), whimsical and distorted (Belew). The relationship is based on the interaction between guitars, which takes the form of: dialogic network, "Call and Response" dialogues, overlaps, and recordings.

And now, after this boring sermon, let's talk about the album: with a stick intro, here begins "Elephant Talk", in which the skill of the new lineup is already shown, with a very frenetic piece, in which Belew even imitates the elephants' trumpets! After "Elephant Talk", it's the turn of "Frame By Frame", in my opinion the most beautiful piece on the album; it starts immediately with a guitar dialogue, in which Fripp starts in a virtuosic fugue and Belew plays in his usual style, then the piece becomes calmer and more melodic, only to return as in the beginning. The waters calm down afterwards with "Matte Kudasai", a beautiful and relaxing slow piece, in which Belew's particular voice predominates. The delirium resumes with "Indiscipline", which begins with a chaotic ballad in Arabic style, then becomes a Zappa-style piece (you can hear Belew's influence, eh?). The delirium continues with "Thela Hun Ginjeet" (anagram of Heat in the Jungle), a very hypnotic and tribal piece. At the right moment, along comes the instrumental "The Sheltering Sky", a beautiful piece, but in my opinion, overrated: obviously, Fripp performs very well, but people confuse the terms "Frippertronics" and "Soundscapes": there's not even one in the piece! If you want to know what they really are, go to http://www.youtube.com, search for one of the two and then you'll discover it. Sorry for the rant... Finally, the title track, another instrumental piece based solely on the guitar network established between Fripp and Belew: beautiful, but somewhat boring, however, it ends very well. Undoubtedly, it is not a masterpiece, Discipline, but in my opinion, it is the most beautiful album of King Crimson of the '80s.